Now, where do I start? I loved making this stuff! Most of the things were on my sewing list anyway, so I just had to find some fabrics in the right colours. I also decided to include more than one garment in the challenge, since the skirt needed an underskirt anyway and when I saw the colours, the Turbulence immediately made me think about that melange jersey I saw at the fabric store.

Haven’t worn a skirt that hits above the knees for at least 10 years… doesn’t look that bad, does it?

Anyway, here are some details! The fabric for the skirt was actually in my stash for about a month and I have no idea what it is made of. It was labeled “Designer Fabric”. But it is a woven fabric. I love the dark blue with the brighter stripes in Mykonos Blue. The idea for skirt pattern came from a german sewing page with looots of tutorials, it’s called the “Victory Faltenrock” (Victory Pleated Skirt). I just made a normal skirt instead of a mini skirt, added a waistband, divided the front panels, changed the position of the zipper to the right side and hid it like it’s normally done with jeans. I think it might be my biggest sewing project up until now! (I didn’t realise all this piping would take that much time, I never sewed a zipper in this way and don’t even get me started on the pleats) And I just LOVE it! It took me ages to figure out how to alter the pattern so the stripes on the pleats would be more or less parallel. And how I wanted to place the stripes on the the rest of the skirt. I went for the “different everywhere” solution, but I did match the stripes at the center front and center back. Another detail I just love, are the pockets under the pleats. And now, some pictures!

The zipper, skirt fastening and the waistband – the inner side of the waistband is made of a soft cotton twill from my stash.

A closeup of the top of the pleats – with some piping!

The piping is made of the same fabric as the rest of the skirt. I didn’t cut it on the bias, but wanted the brighter blue stripes to be visible on it.

And here’s the side view of the skirt!

I also wanted to have a matching underskirt. Only, I didn’t make an underskirt but a pair of tap pants (also called culottes – such a cute word). There’s a tutorial for drafting the pattern and sewing them here. I did alter the pattern a little here and there, used lingerie elastic at the waist and simply hemmed the legs. As the front and back are looking quite similar, I rummaged around a little and came up with a sequil and a matching little bead from my mother, which I sewed on to mark the front. And gone is the fear of short skirts and gusts of wind!

The sequil and bead are a dark green

The bolero is a very simple one, I found it more than once on the internet already. I used this tutorial, but I must confess it’s a little too big for me. And I did scale it down already! Apparently just not enough. I found this woven tape with a black, white and grey tartan pattern, but next time I’ll sew a bolero I’ll get bias tape – the woven tape was so slippery I needed to hand baste it all around before sewing it on 😉

Oh, and it looks totally boring on photos.

A closeup of the woven fabric

And just because I want to mention it: I listened to Ayreon while sewing this stuff. In fact, to everything from Ayreon (even the bonus CDs)! Totally awesome project by Arjen Lucassen!

So that was the TSW Reuninon 2013 for me, I had lots of fun with it! And it was a real challenge for me to work with colours… I’m one of those persons who mostly wears black 😉

Some of you may have noticed the badge on my right side bar from The Sew Weekly Reunion. Yes, I decided to join it, even if I had no idea it existed until a week or two ago. And I decided to post about it in English, since it just would be kind of silly otherwise. So here’s the German girl trying not to fail too hard at writing in English about her sewing adventures.

The theme for the reunion are the Pantone Fall Colors 2013 which, I have to admit, are not sooo much my cup of tea.

Pantone Fall Colors 2013

At first glance they don’t look that bad, but: I just don’t like orange (seriously, nothing in my wardrobe is orange), I’m very picky about red because I’m still letting my red dyed hair grow out and it changes its color weekly with the summer sun bleaching it and never looks good with any shade of red I own and brown… well I like brown but I’m not really wearing it. Not sure why. Then there are three shades of green, but I don’t like this murky tone of the Deep Lichen and while I actually think Linden Green looks nice I prefer darker colors for myself. So that leaves me with Emerald, Mykonos Blue, Acai and Turbulence. While Emerald is Pantone’s Color of the Year, I can’t really remember seeing it anywhere.

Anyway, when I looked at them I suddenly remembered this piece of blue fabric I had in my stash, which is a dark shade of blue striped with Mykonos Blue and a wonderful more or less Turbulence melange jersey I saw at the mall but had no idea what to do with it and therefore didn’t buy it. The blue fabric was originally bought for a skirt which I didn’t come around to make yet, so I’m gonna change that and while surfing around in a forum I came across a really easy and striking idea what to make out of the jersey, so I ran to the mall and bought it. I already used an Acai colored lining two times this year and am a little bored by the color and I really found no fabric at all in Emerald. So I’m settling to make that blue skirt and my jersey project for the reunion. If I do happen to find an Emerald fabric, I’ll buy it for a shirt because I really like the color (and I already know what kind of shirt I’d like to have). I guess that means my reunion project is not one single garment, but rather a whole outfit. Since I have a whole month to sew this, it sounds quite possible to me.

I don’t want to go into the details about the outfit but here’s what I already did: I made a pattern and several muslin parts for the skirt, wrote lots of notes what I have to do and in which order, bought all the odds and ends I still needed and started cutting the blue fabric. The biggest problem here is the placing of the stripes. I also got a fabric for a matching pair of tap pants. The jersey project doesn’t have a pattern, only instructions, and sewing it shouldn’t take more than a few hours but I still have to wash the fabric. I’ll try to first complete the skirt, then the tap pants, then the jersey thing.

And how do you like the Fall Colors? What would you make out of them? I’m already sooo excited to see all the things coming out of this and I’m thrilled to be a part of it!